Having a child with autism has enriched my life and the life of others.

The Media and Medical culture tend to view autism in a negative light. Pediatric training can often train pediatricians to concentrate on the negative aspects of autism when it should concentrate on finding resources for families and becoming comfortable with the population. The way the diagnosis is delivered to families can set the tone for how the family view the path that their autistic family member is about to take. We need to do better in communicating neurodiversity and its traits in a more positive light.

Development of the Health Literacy Assessment Scale for Adolescents (HAS-A).

BACKGROUND: Health literacy has been found to be a crucial component of successful communication and navigation in health care. Various tools have been developed to measure health literacy skills, but few have been developed specifically for adolescents, and most require in-person administration. This study sought to develop a self-report health literacy scale for adolescents to assess four key health literacy domains: the ability to obtain, communicate, understand, and process health information. METHODS: We collected data from 272 youth aged 12-19 recruited from a pediatrics clinic (37%) and the community (63%). We administered the Rapid Estimate of Adolescent Literacy in Medicine-Teen, Newest Vital Sign, and three surveys, and used factor analysis to identify scale items. RESULTS: Using multiple health literacy assessments, it was clear that many teens struggle with low health literacy skills. When identifying items that can be used as self-report items in future research, factor analysis identified three subscales; a 5-item communication scale (alpha = 0.77), a 4-item confusion scale (alpha = 0.73), and a 6-item functional health literacy scale (alpha = 0.76). The scales performed reasonably well when compared with validation items. CONCLUSIONS: Self-report items can be used to assess health literacy skills for adolescents when in-person administration is not possible or feasible. Such items will allow for greater study of how health literacy impacts communication in not only health care settings, but for all levels of health communication. The tool will also allow researchers to better understand how adolescent health literacy is related to a variety of health outcomes. Further testing of these scales with different populations is warranted.